Aspiring filmmakers show their work at three festivals throughout state

Cathleen AdkinFrom left, Robert Loggia, Frank Giglio and Miguel Jarquin-Moreland in "The Great Fight," a Jersey-shot drama that will be shown at the Hoboken International Film Festival in Teaneck.

Ariel Frenkel channeled a palpable current of dark energy for his film debut. In the black comedy "Pluto," a directionless, well-heeled young man adopts a series of disguises and lies his way through encounters with strangers.

Shot mostly in Jersey locations such as Verona Park, Montclair State University and Forsgate Country Club in Monroe Township, the film was written, directed and produced by Frenkel; he also stars in it.

Frenkel says he drew on a grade-school friendship with a boy who came from a verbally abusive household and turned to drugs for release.

"I thought of the circumstance it'd take for a person to get to this, so that you sympathize with him," says Frenkel, a North Brunswick native now living in Queens, N.Y. "I can't get behind it if I don't care about the character."

The sprightly 25-year-old's chameleonic ability to juggle personalities onscreen and production hats offscreen makes him a natural fit for the 16th annual edition of the eclectic New Jersey International Film Festival in New Brunswick. "Pluto" is the sole homegrown full-length feature during the event's three-week run.

Hundreds of films and their makers face stiff competition throughout New Jersey this weekend, as three festivals -- also the Hoboken International Film Festival in Teaneck and the Lighthouse International Film Festival on Long Beach Island -- run simultaneously. (In the cases of the New Brunswick and Teaneck fests, they stretch further into June as well.)

The New Brunswick fest offers two workshops and 31 films, culled from 371 entries by 15 judges and accompanied by appearances by cast and crew members. Al Nigrin, a Rutgers professor and the festival's director, groups them by subtle themes for the nine nights, with a film such as "Pluto" screening on the Jewish-themed night, Sunday. There happen to be a lot of funny movies this year, Nigrin says, though they are not necessarily comedies.

The Hoboken International Film Festival, in its sixth year, qualifies as the most idiosyncratic, celebrity-driven option. Roughly 115 films will be shown and the emcee of the gala awards ceremony -- comedian Gilbert Gottfried -- is likely to joke about the event's misleading title. No part of the festival has been held in the Mile Square City since 2009, but festival founder Kenneth Del Vecchio says he must maintain the "international brand name."

The oft-controversial projects of Del Vecchio, also a Republican state Senate candidate, are part of each year's festival. His "O.B.A.M. Nude," screening Sunday, is a cinematic allegory implying that President Obama is Satan's disciple and intent on implementing a socialist agenda. (Del Vecchio resigned as a North Arlington municipal court judge in 2010 so he could continue to profit from his films.)

He also wrote and produced Friday's opener, "The Great Fight," about an autistic savant (newcomer Miguel Jarquin-Moreland) with a violent past who trains as a fighter. Also starring are Del Vecchio regulars Robert Loggia (last year's lifetime achievement award recipient) and Charles Durning; the film builds to a climactic showdown between the boy and a police officer, shot at the Jersey City Armory.

"Hopefully, this will make the case for treating autistic kids in a normal manner, and finding ways to relate to them," Del Vecchio says.

Along the coast in Ocean County, the third annual Lighthouse International Film Festival shows familiar titles scooped up from the Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Toronto and South by Southwest film festivals. Among the nearly 60 films, "Salvation Boulevard," a religious satire starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear, kicks things off, and "The Trip," a British road trip comedy, is the closer. Directors, writers and actors are expected to appear for the post-film discussions.

"If we weren't out curating, we wouldn't be able to get these top films from festivals around the world," says executive director Charlie Prince, who spent the weeks before the festival surveying Cannes' prospects.

The three festivals share the goal of being an outlet for new talent, and the Garden State itself. Nigrin says his festival is particularly fastidious when it comes to Jersey entries: Frenkel advanced because of his smart, genuine screenplay, Nigrin says.

"Ari has a theater personality that reminds me of Woody Allen, who came from the theater world," Nigrin says. "His film looks like a million bucks, and was obviously not made for that much."

Frenkel, who earned a bachelor's degree in acting from Montclair State University in 2008, is a member of such theater troupes as New Jersey's StrangeDog and New York City's Cake Battered Wives, but has no formal film training.